(Photo Courtesy: USA Today Sports)

Earlier this week, Lamar Hull, an ex-basketball player at Davidson reached out to me and requested the opportunity to do a guest post here at Aaron Torres Sports. Given that he was looking to cover a subject I wouldn't have considered (Brian Urlacher's retirement from the NFL) and given that I have a soft-spot for all ex-athletes, I took Lamar up on it.

Here is his take on the retirement and legacy of one the greatest linebackers to ever play the game.

Brian Urlacher, perennial Pro Bowl linebacker for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League, announced his retirement from the sport he played in for 13 years. On his Twitter account, the 34 year-old linebacker told his fans, “After spending a lot of time this spring thinking about my NFL future, I have made a decision to retire.”

Urlacher had become a free agent in the offseason. After finding little interest from potential suitors, he opted to retire as a member of the Chicago Bears. Urlacher played his entire career with the team. Urlacher told sports talk radio in Chicago he intends to file his official retirement papers with the league soon.

The linebacker played his college ball at the University of New Mexico, where he majored in criminology. He earned a reputation for speed and range playing the “Lobo” position in a 3-3-5 defense. The Lobo is a hybrid position, with elements of linebacker and safety. He was named an All-American safety in 1999. His speed and athleticism allowed Urlacher to also play wide receiver on offense. The college squad utilized Urlacher as a kick return specialist, too.

Over his career, Urlacher played in 182 games, including 180 starts, over the course of what most analysts believe is a Hall of Fame career. He finished his career with 1,779 tackles, 41 ½ sacks and 22 interceptions. The linebacker finishes his career as the Bears all-time leader in tackles. I will always remember watching some of his great performances on NFL Sunday Ticket, I doubt in the near future will anyone live up to Urlacher’s success at the linebacker position.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1,000 times: The NFL Combine is the best mindless programming on television right now.

Ok, so maybe I’ve never said that. And maybe I never even thought it until this week. But either way, it is.

Really, the NFL Combine is right in every sports commentators wheelhouse, the perfect blend of actual football analysis (at a time in the year when basically any football analysis will do) with plenty of snark and sarcasm mixed in too. Not to mention it allows for dummies like me to make completely baseless comments and spit out random, unproveable stuff like, “Oh man, I like the way that guy moves his hips” and “his foot speed simply isn’t NFL caliber.” Safe to say it’s good times. Well, unless you follow me on Twitter anyway.

Regardless the NFL Draft Combine is in fact great TV, and with no other sports on at this particular time of year (at least during the daytime) it provided me hours of entertainment over the last four or five days.

Here are 10 Takeaways after watching all weekend long.

For those who were paying close attention, you may have noticed that I spent most the last week at this year’s NFLPA Bowl. The game, which is put on by the NFL to try and get a handful of college football players noticed by pro scouts held events all of last weekend, and I was lucky enough to attend most of them.  

Unfortunately though, for those looking for information on the game itself, well, you’re going to have to go someplace else to find it. That’s not what I’m here to talk about. Not here and not now anyway. Because while most of the media was in Carson, California last week to do exactly that- to evaluate the next wave of NFL stars- that couldn’t have been further from my mind.

Instead, I was there for a completely different reason: To take in the glory that in that is Herm Edwards. That’s right, the man who once famously uttered the phrase “You play to win the game,” was in attendance last week as the coach of the National team.

And it’s safe to say that after three days around him, my life will never be the same again.

I still remember the day Rex Ryan was hired as the head coach of the New York Jets.

At the time I was lost (not literally, but figuratively), living with three buddies, spending my night’s bartending to pay the bills, and passing time during the day trying to figure out any conceivable way to get into the sports writing field. It was the beginning of the newspaper decline, and at the time there wasn’t a single place in the country looking to hire a 23-year-old with a journalism degree.

Back then, just about the only sliver of joy in my life was listening to the Michael Kay radio show on my drive into bartend at night. Kay is great at what he does, a typical stubborn New Yorker, someone who is argumentative almost to a fault, and an eternal pessimist. It made for incredibly entertaining radio, especially when he would bicker with his young 20/20 update girl, some gal named Michelle Beadle.

That’s also why I so distinctly remember the day Ryan was hired: After his introductory press conference, Kay was over the moon for him, swooning like a 14-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert.

Now before we go further, there is one thing you need to understand: At the time, nobody talked about the Jets on sports radio. Nobody. Even when the Knicks were missing the playoffs every year, the Mets were irrelevant and the Yankees were in the off-season, it didn’t matter. The Jets were the little engine that couldn’t, the franchise unable to get out of its own way, the team that was everyone else’s punch-line. Even when they tried to do something to grab headlines, it always fell apart in the most Jet-like way possible. Remember, it was that fall when the Jets traded for Brett Favre (yes that happened) and won eight of their first 11 games…only to lose four out of their last five and miss the playoffs. That’s the Jets for you.

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Of all the things I love about sports, two that I don’t generally care for are Skip Bayless and the Mike and Mike radio show. Never liked either, and doubt I ever will.

Yet ironically, it was the confluence of the two on Tuesday morning, which brought the article you’re about to read together.

It was on Tuesday morning that I flipped on the radio, and reluctantly put on Mike and Mike; if only because I got tired hearing traffic and weather reports every 30 seconds. Anyway, Skip was filling in for Greeny, and when I tuned in, he was discussing his favorite topic, Mr. Timothy Richard Tebow. We all know Skip loves Tebow, but when Bayless spoke about him, he made one especially poignant comment that really caught my attention.

That comment? It went a little something like this:

In all my years in the media, Tim Tebow is the only athlete I’ve ever covered- EVER- who isn’t defined by the most important thing in sports: Winning.

Wow. In all the conversations I’ve had on Tebow through the years, I’ve never really thought of it like that.

But isn’t Bayless right? After all, what defines a team, athlete or coach more than winning? The answer is nothing.

Simply put, Tim Tebow is the most polarizing athlete of my lifetime. Despite never breaking the law, doing anything morally or ethically wrong, or hell, even winning a professional championship, people have stronger opinions on him than anything athlete I can ever remember. You either love or hate him, loathe or appreciate him. He elicits opinion, anger and reverence like no one else; not Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan or Mike Vick, nor mention Ben Roethlisberger, Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant.

Why? Well, I’m not totally sure, but from the best I can gauge it’s because he doesn’t do things conventionally. Ask most NFL “analysts,” and they’ll tell you a guy can’t be good in the “NATIONAL…FOOTBALL…LEAGUE,” if he can’t throw a frozen rope 40 yards downfield, or he picks up more first downs with his legs than his arm. Forget winning six of seven games, Tim Tebow can’t throw a pretty spiral! The world is coming to an end!!! For some, it doesn’t matter what Tebow does, they'll just never be in his corner. And yes, I’m talking you to Merrill Hoge. You prick.

But thankfully, I’m here. I’m here to peel back the layers of the onion, and help people fully appreciate Tim Tebow. He might not be your conventional signal-caller, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy him.

It’s time to embrace Tim Tebow.

Here are 50 reasons why you should…

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In a weird way, it seems appropriate that I’ve had so much trouble starting this column. I’d tried 100 different beginnings, and come to 100 different dead-ends. I’ve tried to be funny and serious, goofy and grim. And so far I’ve got nothing.

Then again, it’s hard to blame me. I am trying to write about Tim Tebow after all. And at this point, how can anyone possibly quantify this guy with words?

How do words fully explain the most unique, fascinating and polarizing athlete of my lifetime? How do they explain a quarterback that can look so bad for 56 minutes and so utterly untouchable for four? How do words capture a guy who’s so revered, loved and admired by his teammates, even as- at times- he does so little to help them win games?

You can’t. Which is the beauty of Tim Tebow. He’s a perfectly flawed, perfectly confusing, and at times, a perfectly…perfect quarterback.

He’s also perfectly unexplainable, which makes him so damn fascinating. It’s why I love the guy, and why so many others hate him.

Speaking of the haters, let’s start with this: Is there a single person on the planet that can actually give a logical explanation as to why the guy is such a lightning rod? I’ve thought about it from every angle, and I certainly can’t.  He hasn’t broken the law. He hasn’t been arrested. He hasn’t gone to jail. He hasn’t done anything morally or ethically wrong like Tiger Woods. He hasn’t even inadvertently alienated a community or fan base like LeBron did to those in Cleveland. Seriously, what’s the worst thing Tebow has actually done? Tried to push his religious values on us? Well my goodness, lock him up and throw away the key. What a jerk, huh?

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When I was a kid in the early 1990’s, the professional athlete pecking order went a little something like this: Michael Jordan was the greatest; Ken Griffey Jr. (and his backward hat) was the coolest; Mike Tyson was the scariest; Shaq was the biggest; Pete Sampras the most mysterious; and Michael Irvin the loudest, with a few other non-descript guys (Emmitt, Marino, Elway, Ewing, Malone) mixed in too.

Then there was Deion Sanders, a guy who was basically in a class all his own.

With Deion, you never knew quite what you were going to get on a day-today or even hour-to-hour basis, but at the very least, you knew it’d be interesting. He was the brashest, most talkative and occasionally mean-spirited guy in sports, who could also “flick a switch,” on the field when the lights came on like no one else. In a weird way, all of Deion’s talking took away from the fact that he was far and away the best cover corner in the game of football, not to mention a damn good baseball player too. There aren’t many people who can say that they played in the Major League’s as a part-time summer job. But that’s exactly what Deion did at the time.

Still, despite all the athletic exploits, it hardly meant that everyone liked the guy. Not at all. With Deion, you loved him or hated him, embraced him or loathed him, but there was no middle ground in between. No one “kinda liked,” Deion Sanders or “thought he was ok.” If I had to describe Deion in one word (Like I did the athletes above), it’d probably be “polarizing.”

That was definitely the case in the house I grew up in. Now in my defense, I was too young at the time to formulate my own well thought out opinions, so I relied heavily on my parents to do it for me. I took their word as gold, and when it came to Deion Sanders, they couldn’t stand him. The way they’d been raised, and raised us kids was essentially the opposite of everything Deion was about. We were taught to be quite, courteous and respectful of authority. We were told never to discuss ourselves. The one thing my parents never tolerated was arrogance.

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On Friday, July 1, 2011, America woke up to a sad reality: The NFL is locked out. The NBA is locked out. And Major League Baseball just…won’t…go…away. Add in a summer with no Olympics or World Cup (unless you include that cute tournament the gals are playing), and these really are tough times for sports fans.

Luckily, for glorious hour last night, ESPN hit a programming home run. They matched my favorite washed-up, slightly overrated, but always entertaining ex-coach, with my favorite unregistered car driving, Gucci belt wearing disgraced former quarterback, in what was truly the most entertaining hour of TV in a very long time.

That’s right, Terrelle Pryor went to Camp Gruden Thursday night.

And I kept a running diary to commemorate it.

9:00 p.m. EST: We open up the program with the clock showing 4:14 a.m. While the rest of the world sleeps, Jon Gruden is awake, arriving at the headquarters of the FFCA; the Fired Football Coaches Association of America. First order of business: Put on a pot of coffee. Second order of business: Take over the world.

A couple of things here.

One, I don’t know if the “FFCA” is a new shtick, or one Gruden has been playing up all along, but I love it. And really, it just leads me to so many questions. Who else is part of the association? Are there membership dues? Is there a grace period to be elected, like the Baseball Hall of Fame? Most importantly, do they ever prank call Bill Stewart and offer him membership, before hanging up the phone on him and high-fiving each other? Is there a website where I can go to get some answers?

After covering the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday, it’s time to take a look at what happened over the weekend in Round’s 2-7.

Now if you’ve never read me before, understand that I’m no draft expert. I have no qualifications to evaluate these teams and picks beyond, “I watch way too much college football, and have an opinion on everyone," to the point that when the Bears took Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle in the fifth round Saturday, I cringed and muttered to myself, “Eww, what do they want that guy for.” I’m guessing I may be the only person outside Idaho or the Enderle family that actually gave that pick more than a second of thought.

Either way, despite my limited qualifications, that would never stop me from writing another mini-manifesto on this weekend’s draft picks.

Here are some picks that I liked, some that I didn’t, and much more…

Best Draft: St. Louis Rams

Ok, so maybe Mel Kiper only graded St. Louis out at a “B.” And maybe Todd McShay questioned a handful of their picks. But honestly, what do those guys know anyway?

Starting from the top, as a reader named Arjun C. pointed out to me after Thursday’s first round, if there’s one thing we’ve learned through the years, it's that the way you win in the NFL is with great quarterback play, great protection, and a great pass rush. Well, after addressing those first two things in the last two drafts, St. Louis definitely addressed No. 3 by taking Robert Quinn in this year’s first round.  Had he not been suspended this past season, Quinn may have been the No. 1 pick overall. Checkmate St. Louis.

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